Grammar Of Apabhramsa

Author(s): Madhusudan Mishra
Publisher: Vidyanidhi Prakashan

Page 20

Historical Apabhramsa Phonology
5. But the conjunction of two semivowels resulted in the doubling of the first, except when it is r; e.g. kāvya (poetry) kabba, kārya (work)> kajja Please note that v is doubled as bb and y as jj.
6. A stop following a sibilant is aspirated and doubled; e.g. suşka (dry)> sukkha, etc.
7. A sibilant followed by a semivowel is doubled: e.g. tasya tassa, etc.
8. A sibliant followed by a nasal is voiced to h and then follows the nasal; e.g. grişma (summar) gimha, etc.
9. A dental is palatalised by y; e.g. satya (true) sacca, adya (today)> ajja, etc. (iv) Some individual changes may be summarised thus :
jñ>ñ (ñ), ny>ñ (ñ), kş>ch or kh, hy>yh, hv> vb. (v) The consonants did not change singly as a rule, but
there was a tendency of sibilants changing into h or ch :
trayodaśa (13)> teraba, șaț (6)> cha, etc. Upto Pali, this is the whole story. (b) In Prakrit : (i) e and o were pronounced short ě and ở before conjunct
consonants. (ii) The intervocalic k, g, c, j, t, d, p, y and v were lost,
leaving only the vowels following them; e.g. kāka (crow) > kāa, rājā (king) >rāā, kati (how many), kapi
(monkey), kavi (poet)> kai, etc. (iii) The intervocalic kh, gh, th, dh, ph. and bh were reduced
to h; e.g. mukha (mouth)> muba, megha (cloud)>
meha, etc. These were the major changes in addition to those enumerated above.
(c) In Apabhramśa : (i) The intervocalic m and n were reduced to v and the
nasalisation was thrown back on the preceding vowel;